Mavericks

Just a quick post to say that Rachel is a trooper. If she had told me that one of her friends was going to hurtle us through the air in a plane the size of a Disney ride and would take our lives into his hands flying low over cities, then over open water, and plunk us down on the landing strip, I might not have okayed that. Obviously, I know and trust Dan, so the only thing I was worried about was the landing (j/k, Dan!), but kudos to Rachel, who went all in on blind faith.

In other news, I was a little bummed that we didn't get to pick our own call sign. I was under the impression that we could tell the tower that we'd like to be 'Maverick' today, a la Top Gun. I know that it's a little cliche to go the Tom Cruise route, but Goose and Icegirl did not seem like appropriate choices. But Dan told us that we had already been assigned "SKyHawk 2750 November" and we should listen carefully for the tower in case we were about to bump into the many jetliners or helicopters trolling around SFO airspace. You can imagine that the cockpit got very quiet anytime 'November' came up-- Rachel and I were taking no chances. I really wish we could have recorded the chatter over the radio--- hearing Dan say that he was requesting clearance to "taxi with Charlie" or "clear the option" was mystifying and impressive all at once. You might actually think he was experienced at this or something.

Anyway, we survived our first adventure. There's more risky business ahead.